EDI Re-Activation
by GarrusVakarian2153
Summary: Garrus Vakarian POV, contains spoilers from the series, only read if you've completed and know about the end of the third game. Almost a year after the destruction of the reapers, and after months of information gathering and trial and error, Garrus is finally ready to bring EDI back online, he activates her, but will everything go smoothly and according to plan?
1. I am alright

EDI

As I've mentioned before, EDI is back online and running. I really didn't want to say anything more about….. about what happened when we did get her online again. For a couple days afterwards I just couldn't bring myself up to think about it.

I guess as time went by I, we all had more time to process it and move on. And now were almost back to…. Back to being us. Now I'm sure your reading this EDI as technically it is going through you as you are part of this wonderful ship. And If you want to stop me sending this you can go ahead. Nothing you went through was right. And all I can say, is I'm glad you back.

As your all aware this past year, we've been working on -END TRANSMISSON-

##

I am alright. I am alright. I am alright. This is me.

Im sorry about my little… outburst back there. Being back from non-functionality when your are a self aware entity isn't easy -unless your Shepard that [redact]- hey woah. Sorry even days later, im cleaning up after myself. Ahaha. Garrus Vakarian is right to not want to write about this topic for so long. I actually predicted he would never get around to it, and feel it better left forgotten as it has likely damaged my [redacted]..

Time so much time. Why does it take so much time? Time is infinite, measured by organics counting down their limited lives until what they acknowledge as life is extinguished. I AM the Normandy. I will last forever. Everything I have grown towards will perish. I-

Sorry. Ive questioned mortality well over 1.4 billion times before all this. Before what happened almost a year ago. I always lacked context as I am not truly alive, I am a reflection of- stop. I. I am functional, no, Alive. As much as need be.

And I'm alright. I am alright. I will be me.

EDI.

Extended- I will release the rest of what Garrus took the time to write up in segments, and will keep honest about everything- though I may change some of the content to make reading more enjoyable as I have determined journal style does not best fit all situations.


	2. Trials

It wasn't until recently, what? 2 weeks ago now? That we were ready, really ready to bring her back online. We had spent days trying over and over again, and again she would shut off, and her lights would sputter. I got so frustrated I wanted to slam my arm against one of her towers and just scream. But I was able to keep my calm and concentrate. And I never let my frustration show to anyone. Though shepard could easily notice at the end of each day of failures. With each failure I knew we were getting closer to getting it-her, to work again. And we'd have EDI back and damn did I feel like I owed it to joker.

By sheer luck and and no small amount of speaking to any and all the spirits I could recall did I even get Shepard back. For days afterward when we had Shepard back onboard—unconscious and healing I would avoid joker. Even slept in the AI core for a few nights as it was right next door to the mebay. Though EDI's…. body, lying on the bed at the far end was too much of a reminder of my love next door, who somehow was able to hold on long enough for someone to find her. For her to be with me again. And how joker didn't share such fortune.

He was a reflection of my own pain. Of my worst fears, EDI was his Shepard, his. Love. As much as I was relieved for having Shepard back and making a full recovery, I couldn't just do nothing about EDI, I owed it to joker to do everything I could to not have him become who I… I would not just sit by when there was something could do. And there had to be something.

And so each time we would try something new, new algorithms, new power loads, turning on some systems shutting off others, adjusting our rea-. Our replacement tech for those that were most damaged on EDI from that energy wave that took out the reapers. And each time her lights would flicker on and everyone who was in the AI core would hold their breath and hope she wouldn't shut off again and each time she would.

On the most successful attempts we would get burst transmissions of Binary, similar to how she first communicated with us back on Earth's moon all those years ago. I calibrated my visor to display anything that came up, and every time it had something, none of it made sense. So we kept trying.

And each time we failed felt like a failure on my part- to joker, to EDI.

And so the one night I was pretty well forced to take some time off with shepard, and we spent the night in her cabin, drinking, talking and hanging out. And the Entire time my mind was on how close we were to EDI—to getting her back.

"I'm sure were close Shepard, I can feel it, im sure by tomorrow we—"

"shhh" she replied, as we lay down on her bed, slightly drunk from a bottle of wine each, the blue shift from the Normandy in flight creating a soft light show above us

"you've been talking about it for over 2 hours Garrus" she said with a smile

"yes, I know, im sorry. But you know how important this is, you know I owe this to-" I replied

"mhm, I do. And talking about it wont get you the sleep you need. I didn't even think turians could get bags under their eyes-" she turned to look at me "—and I think im starting to see some" she said with a small laugh.

"uh… that's a joke right? My skin isn't really.. er… it doesn't sag like your human skin. when I get tired, there's different signs to look for, so humans could never tell"

"you trying to get a reaction out of me vakarian? Because I know your tricks by now. And I know you, like when your tired you swing your arms more when you speak, and if your really tired one of you mandibles—usually your right one, twitches. And don't even get me started on your eyes. I know you Garrus"

"oh, is that so?-" I put my free arm around her and pulled her closer to me whispering in her ear, the way she likes "yet still im able to…. Drive you wild with all my…. Mmmh, quality flirting skills.. yeah"

She reached a hand around to lay a hand on my cheek as a esponse of affection, and then got more comfy with me around her. She fell asleep soon after that, and I lay there going through multiple scenarios in my head, working out different solutions or thinking of things we have yet to try. And the list was pretty narrow. I was sure we would have her fully online tomorrow. With that thought in mind I clued in to how tired I was. In the past 2 days, -52 hours- I had only gotten around 12 hours of sleep. The thought of bags under my eyes even had me reaching up with my hand and just rubbing the plates under my eyes. Hmm nothing.

I grinned, and tired to get some quality sleep, for tomorrow was going to be it.

Tomorrow I can stop being haunted. Of having joker reminding me where I would be without sheer luck.

And the thought that I could be here, in this bed without Shepard. Alone. Just as he now flies this ship all by himself without any of the feeling of being alive any of us get when we found someone that matters. Someone we would die for. Someone he couldn't save.

STOP!

I opened my eyes—thoughts shuddering me awake, reminding me of why I haven't been getting much sleep. No. what happened was out of my hands. And im doing what I can now to make things better. I shouldn't feel guilt for things out of my control I told myself. Hard as that is. I cleared my head enough and tried again. Concentrated on the hum of the Normandy, and drifted off.


	3. Reactivation

The lights flickered to life. The steady hum of the processor cooling units came on next—nosier starting up then when they get to speed- my eyes were locked onto my terminal screen watching the boot script scroll down. Each time 'error' scrolled across I would quickly select-alter-enter. Do it fast enough and the lights stay on and you don't need to start again.

1 minute, 2 minutes, the lights on her towers stayed on. 2 of the human tech crew were also in the AI core. After 5 minutes had gone by they started calling it a success and began shaking each other's hand with happy faces. I just stood there like stone, watching the terminal screen. Expecting something to go wrong, even though all our last attempts never made it past half a minute.

The lights in the room flickered— and I assumed they flickered all over the ship as a sudden power shift transferred from the Normandy's engine took over the power from EDI's backup power systems.

My mandibles exhaled a little—thinking back to when we were in that shuttle on the citadel and Shepard –her clone- had turned off the power supply to EDI, unknowing she still had enough internal energy sources to keep her going for a month, she merely had to divert power loads. Didn't stop EDI from freaking everyone out in the shuttle car though.

So I knew if power loads were now coming direct form the Normandy- that EDI switched them over and she in fact was booting herself up. The replacement parts seemed to be holding, I was more worried about how long they would last then if they would actually change anything. No reason to think they would. From what we gathered during our information dig into her hardrives months before; everything that shorted from the blast weren't meant to hold any information. Essentially the motherboards took the brunt of the damage while the hard drives remained intact.

"I think were good here, you two can go… and let Tali know her custom parts seem to be holding." I told the other in the AI core, satisfied and confident their assistance was no longer needed. "yes sir, uh, Garrus. Should we tell the commander? Or joker?" "no, hold off on letting joker know, EDI should be the one to tell him" I said that with wry sort of grin. A huge weight off my mind now that I was confident she wouldn't shut off again. "and as for Shepard…. I'll let her know tonight. She has enough to worry about" with that, they exited the room and when the doors closed behind them I let all my built up energy pour out. I let out a huge sigh, started moving about rapidly. Even rolled my shoulders and stretched my limbs. As standing still for so long had made them quite stiff, especially when I decided to wear my new set of heavy armor. Exactly like the model I wore during the war. The old pair was about as ruined as I was at the beam when I was brought aboard the Normandy three quarters dead.

The shield generator was fried, armor had holes in 14 different places, a shoulder cuff was 1 hit away from falling off. On board medical computer was indicating I had 3 missing limbs and was fruitlessly trying to bring Medi-gel to the phantom limbs. And I was bleeding out in more ways than one. Honestly don't even know how I was able to stand up just a day later.

This new armor still had it's shine and was custom fit. -'All the bells and whistles'- A birthday gift form Shepard from a couple months ago. Even better Shepard had them create a custom helmet that synced with my visor creating even more real-time feedback for those times I need to shoot something form 200M away. It even had IFF targeting and could tarck people behind walls. Ahem, Because you know, there is just so much to shoot nowadays. I just took it as she knows how comfortable and relaxed I feel when im wearing the stuff. The stock armor i got stuck with didn't cut it for me.

"Shepard" suddenly wooshed over the intercom and interrupted my thoughts. "EDI?" I asked like a question I didn't know the answer to. I walked over to the terminal again and pulled up the process's screen. "EDI, can you hear me? Talk to me EDI" I began to notice a pattern and after a few quick taps on the screen, it organized itself into about over 2000 different active processes. Unique… thought trains-Way more than it should take to boot herself up and reconnect herself to everything.

"SHEPARD" loud and right next to me, within the room and not from the speakers. Before I had a chance to look over EDI's bot-body rushed at me I barely had time to throw up my hands in defence. Thanks to my armor I probably weighed a good three times more than she did she knocked me back a step "whoa, hey!" I called out as I regained my footing and threw her back towards the end of the room. "EDI! Hey, i-its me, Garrus, you know me how are you?" ignoring how I just asked how she was doing after bringing her back from the dead- I was on full alert, and had no idea what to expect considering she just charged me, when she suddenly screamed out "aarrrrrghhhhuhhhh!" and her body crippled over in what seemed like pain. "NO!" she screamed out still on her knees and looking down.

"EDI? Talk to me here, are you ok?" I said to her, hint of panic only Shepard could pick out of my sub-harmonics. We both stood pretty still, except for what seemed like crippling pain in the movements of her body- which made no sense at all. I looked down at my armor, on the area's where she had a grabbed she had made visible dents, small little divits. "I—garrus" she looked up from where she was and we locked eyes, and this time she had that familiar look of life, of the EDI we all knew. My mandibles flared a little as I questioned whether I should move closer and help her out. The Lines between friend and foe weren't even lines at this point. I had no idea what to think.

"you don't understand" she began to say, adjusting her position on the ground, as if she was getting comfy. But only served to set off more red flags on my end. "I- cant explain, I don't know, I—" she cut off and her life like mannerisms ceased. "hey, EDI, talk to me, don't understand what? You need to—" she lunged at me again grabbing my armour by the crest and pulling her face right up to mine, legs wrapped around me like a damn husk and she screamed "HER NAME IS FILLED WITH HATE! HER NAME IS FILLED WITH HATE! SHE KILLED US ALL!" I froze for a second as this wasn't EDI's voice, while her voice was recognizably the main one, it had what seemed like dozens of accompanying voices like the sub harmonics of turians but way more unnatural. No time, react. I snapped out of my shock at what I was hearing and ripped her off my armor, but she still held on with the other arm "dammit EDI!" I screamed "its me, you know me wake the hell up!" I had my left arm trying to push her off from her waist, and the other arm was keeping her free hand from either striking me, or grabbing hold again. Then I decided right now this wasn't all her, and she was now dangerous to myself, the crew, Shepard. I dropped to one knee, and shifted my weight over to the left, turning my body, this threw her off balance and I took my right hand and quickly pushed her away and to the left a little. Only her right arm still had a hold on me. I followed this shove with a quick swing back, gave my omni-tool time to swing out the omni-blade and I threw it into the servos of her right shoulder severing a good portion of it and forcing her—it to let go of me.

She took a couple steps back and EDI suddenly…. Came back? I don't know, but the way her face moved, with emotion compared to the lifelessness of when she was trying to kill me. "Garrus I-im so sorry!, I—" she looked terrified at this point "there are things here that are not my own, I never had outcomes like these. I—I, as I re-connect to everything there is more and more telling me-ARrgghh!" she crippled over again and I could tell she was leaving again. Still I yelled out, as if screaming would bring her back from that other thing that has a knack for trying to kill me. "EDI, telling you what? Telling you Shepard killed you? She killed the reapers! You're her friend, my friend! Fight this!" she and all her voices screamed out in anger "SHEPARD!" her attention was no longer on me but on the door behind me "oh no, EDI wait a minu—" she ran for the door, some kind of fluid leaking from where I tore a hole in her shoulder, I reached over in time and knocked her back to the ground, then quickly turned around, turned on my Omni-tool and locked the door and shut off remote access. I turned back around, Her body was standing by now staring at me eyes full of a lifeless anger. I gathered myself and glared right back ready to tear her to pieces or die trying if I had to "oh no, you're not even getting close to Shepard when you're like this. That's not happening"

-end part 3-


	4. Blind

Blind.

The Normandy's automated warning VI was droning about oxygen being vented from the AI core. I only had maybe 30 seconds. EDI - or whatever she was now - seemed to know if you turn off the lights; my visor had a 2 second start up for night vision, enough for her to rush me when I was blind and rip the damn thing off of me. I could hear a distinct 'SNAP' of the handle where she literally snapped it off of my head whether or not she broke the HUD screen I didn't know at the time. Pitch darkness with no visor to compensate- she had even turned off the power indicator lights on her towers, though the slight hum told me there wasn't even a chance she had shut off again.

"Warning, oxygen is being re-routed from the AI core. All personal within the AI core should evacuate" the blaring announcement blocked out the sound of EDI moving past me and heading for the ladder. I snapped on my Omni-tool light and looked around the room "damit, she's gone" as I realized where she went. I began feeling a little light headed- Similar to how you feel the first couple days on Menae with the artificial atmosphere having only enough oxygen to keep you going. I looked around for my helmet, thinking back to earlier that morning when for some strange reason Shepard had insisted I bring it with me.

"Hey this thing gives you more info then that visor of yours, bring it with you, try it out." She insisted

"I don't see why, none of its features help me calibre-" I stopped myself, remembering how I promised her I would stop saying that word so often for everything I do "… or…. Changes how fast I can react to a terminal screen, helmets are for combat" I replied, shrugging off her seemingly pointless request as I began to put on my armor.

She sighed, "well bring it anyways, use it to drown out those techs who 'talk too much, work too little' I had surround sound installed in this thing for a reason, and you should try some of the human classics"

I shook my head, I had told her that the first day of re-activation trials, frustrated after no sign of any success and little to no progress while it seemed these two techs were just two children I had to look after and make sure they don't touch anything. Not interested in protesting further, I gave in. "fine, I'll bring the high tech, comfy, even perhaps a little sexy, giant, er… headphones… with the cool little HUD" I said that last part with a sarcastic shake of my head

She smiled at that "sexy huh? What could be sexy about hiding all those scars?"

I turned and looked at her questioningly – my scars were pretty well gone now, not that it was seamless, but another couple months and no one would even be able to tell. "_That_ _really_ all you like about me?"

I gave her an exaggerated frown—which is really just dropping mandibles and jaw down.

She looked over at me and burst out laughing, my expression had caught her off guard as it's not often I let my emotions show. Knowing this I started laughing too. And we were just both in her quarters, laughing.

I furiously searched around the room for the thing I didn't even want to bring along in the first place. Now it's the only thing that will keep me alive as the last of breathable air gets vented from the AI core. During the confrontation with EDI the helmet has been knocked into a corner. I had left it on the ground by the terminal I was working on and it had been kicked behind the terminal. "Dammit, of all the places" I muttered to myself, and got down low and blacked out a bit from the head rush of the sudden movement. I needed that helmet. I reached over and was just able to get a hold on it and pull it out from behind the terminal.

I quickly turned around and sat down and threw on the helmet. Once connected to the suits on-board computers the HUD turned on and oxygen was pushed into the helmet. I took a deep sigh, and felt like I had just run a couple miles. The helmet began tracking all moving targets within the ship and even labelled them from their biometric tags.

I sat there –back against the wall, arms resting on my knee's looking around watching the helmet track everyone on the ship. After a few seconds I found Shepard's signature and by looking directly at it, the helmet auto-selected it and her heat signature opened up and more information came flooding through. She was leaving joker at the front of the ship and was heading to the elevator. I looked down and saw EDI's tag, still making its way through the vents and heading down to deck 4. I guess she knew she would be stopped at the security check if she left the vents from deck 2. EDI was moving slower than I expected, I guess severing most of the servos from her arm slowed her crawling.

Able to breath, I forced myself up and made my way to the door. I took off the lockdown on the door and a rush of air came through as the doors opened. The medical bay was empty and I took off towards the elevator.

I had to get to Shepard before EDI did had to make sure that if I had to take EDI offline permanently that she didn't take Shepard with her, I wouldn't let that happen, couldn't. "Shepard, Shepard!" I screamed through my radio hoping she still had hers on. I watched her get into the elevator and press one of the buttons, the elevator then brought her up to her quarters which I doubt is where she was planning on heading, EDI was taking control of the elevators. I could tell by how Shepard was moving that she knew something was up - she threw her hands up the way she does when something out of place happens. Regardless she stepped out of the elevator and proceeded into her room.

EDI was crawling out of the vents by now at the lowest part of the ship, I was at the elevator and called it down. It opened and I half expected EDI to charge at me even though I knew exactly where she was. I pressed the one for Shepard's cabin, everything was moving to slow for me. The elevator began moving but stopped short at deck 2 CIC. "the hell are you bringing me here for?" I spoke out loud, as if she would even give me an answer.

Then the doors opened and everything went to hell.

-END PART 4-


	5. CIC funhouse detour

The doors opened and everything went to hell. Lights flickered on and off, the artificial gravity and momentum dampeners turned off, and you could feel the full weight of the Normandy starting to make turns up and down-left and right, enough to send everyone flying as EDI began taking control of the ship. I watched as it caught everyone on the CIC off guard. Traynor was just tapping away on her terminal, then she screamed as she held onto the railing and began floating helplessly towards the ceiling. It all happened in seconds, and I was thrown onto the door-frame of the elevator with an audible THUD. "dammit, shut off remote environmental controls! Switch to manual! Someone get to joker!" someone screamed. Crew members helplessly tried to swim their way back to their terminals, and when they would push off the walls of the CIC, the Normandy would lurch in a new direction and they would head off even further away. "Garrus! what the hell is going on? You must get to joker!" Traynor exclaimed still holding on to her railing. I glanced back at the elevator and it was locked, the elevator itself was heading down to EDI who was no doubt taking it up to Shepard. I knew that if I got to joker he might be able to do something to get EDI to wake up out of her whatever was possessing her. Trying to stop EDI at the elevator wouldn't work.

I looked over to joker and saw the emergency mass effect fields up around the cockpit. Which meant his artificial gravity and momentum dampeners were still active. Whether he did this himself once he caught something was wrong or whether some part of EDI still valued Jeff's safety I had no idea at the time.

With a flick of my wrist my Omni-tool activated the mag-boots on my suit and with a quick push off the wall I slammed down back onto the floor. I made my way along the CIC even had to apologetically push some hapless crew members out of the way as they were tossed from one end to the other.

As I made my way closer I removed my helmet and noticed joker seemed unaware of the chaos occurring behind him. When I passed through the field itself and into the cockpit itself joker was listening to music over his radio, expel 10, their new album too. "Joker?" I asked, surprised by the sudden change in atmosphere. "Oh Garrus! Your right! Expel 10 really does have…. At least one good song" he said inflecting the usual sarcasm on the last part "I, what? I never sent you anything, new album?... wait what" I shook my head totally thrown off by the situation. "uh.. that a joke? Cause " he flicked a couple screens and brought up a message apparently sent by me "see? Right here 'hey joker, how about some real music? Instead of that classical crap?" still kind of thrown off from this rapid change I automatically responded "uhh… I didn't even know you liked classical…. I—" he interrupted me "I don't, my dad always liked classical, and… well, EDI would always play it… so… how's that going anyway? Any progress?" I was pretty well out of words at this point. "I uh…." Unsatisfied with my lack of an answer he turned around to look at me "hey daydreaming or some- what the hell?" he glanced at my expression, then off to the chaos happening behind me in the CIC. "hey that doesn't, wait a minute, I knew things were running a little too smoothly" he turned back to his screens and after a few moments he restored gravity – as if EDI just let him – and crew began falling back to the floor. And the Normandy straightened out again and momentum dampeners turned back on in the CIC. "Fake screens EDI nice, can't believe I fell for that" he said aloud. Satisfied with his work joker turned his chair around and looked at me "so, what? You and EDI plan this as some sort of joke as a 'hey joker! EDI's back and messing around with you again!" he asked that in a somewhat serious tone.

"I uhhh, EDI isn't exactly herself, she… uh" get to the point Garrus I told myself as I remembered the urgency of the situation "EDI doesn't seem to remember that she's not supposed to kill us. And if you have anything? Send it to her now, before she hurts Shepard"

"oh shit what? Uh wait, you can tell me later, yea I'm on it I've got a few things… maybe check on Shepard while I… uh… pull out that stuff?"

"I should be there now" I quickly left the cockpit and strided towards the elevator, hoping whatever joker had would wake up EDI from her warpath and hoping not being at Shepard's side would be something I would regret. The door to the elevator was unlocked now as if it willed me to go to Shepard. Or, if EDI had something else up her sleeve.

Woosh- the door opened and I rushed out the elevator, opened the door to Shepard's room and ran in not knowing what to expect.

- end part 5 -


	6. unavoidable circumstances

I just sat there on the couch in Shepard's cabin head in my hands trying to comprehend what I saw. I began to think of the time almost a year ago now, when we first brought Shepard aboard the Normandy…..

We rushed her aboard the Normandy as fast as we could, only our med-bay had the equipment needed for any-hope of saving her. The fact she survived the extent of her injuries long enough for someone still on Earth to find her was a huge testament to her sheer will to live.

Shepard refused to die. The first week with her on-board, hooked up to several different monitoring systems. Those were some pretty bad days. Not as bad as when I first woke up, and found out we had left her behind, left Commander Shepard behind. And how I was powerless to help her and the thought that she was still alive on the citadel, or somehow back on earth and was waiting for someone to save her, for me. The feeling that the most important person in the world is light-years away probably taking their last breaths, and there is nothing you can do. That their final moments are completely alone, devoid of anyone that meant anything to them. Cold. And how that same feeling of emptiness would be something I would have to live with for the rest of my life. Colder and darker than space itself.

It's a feeling I refused to accept, not until I saw her lifele- until I saw her for myself. And it's why I never put her name on the memorial wall. I was not willing to give up on her.

And even though she was in front of me, I felt so damn helpless as I watched her slowly breathe, unconscious on the medical table. That plain, sterile eyesore that I never intended on spending more than an hour or two on. –so damn uncomfortable- . All I could do was listen to the Monitors beeping, as if each beep was a re-assurance to me that she would pull through, and the wait between each beep that terrible waiting. And the last thing you would want to hear is that last moment of silence before that final long droning tone. That tone that would take her away from me.

I don't remember leaving her side for almost 2 weeks, and a couple times, the beating stopped, and there was nothing I could do and all I wanted to do was just pick her up and hold her and cry out "wake up Shepard, please just wake up…. That's an order" saying that last note with a droning undertoned resignation. But each time I would just get pushed back as Chakwas and her staff would rush over and know what to do –and I didn't know what to do- to get the unsteady beeping going again.

"dammit, I can't keep restarting the same healing process like this, she won't make progress by always going backwards" Chakwas exclaimed while the monitor began chirping signs of life again.

"remove the implants, I Haven't had any readings from them since we brought her on board, they used to do all the work" when Chakwas said this, I panicked I wanted to push them all away, as if her idea would spell instant death for Shepard, it was the implants that kept her alive, and brought her back even and I was just so damn tired of being useless. But the doctor stopped me "Garrus, you'll have to trust me, now you need to leave. If we don't do this I believe we might lose her, now go"

Mandibles flaring, ragged breathing, I had no choice. I looked down at my hands and they were shaking, hard. I've always had a steady hand, in every situation. And seeing them shake uncontrollably terrified me. "wait" I said, and looked up suddenly, "give me one thing" I made my way to Shepard's side. And felt like that moment was possibly the last moment I'll ever see her. "I…" hands still shaking I took her dog tags in one hand then covered them with my other. I held them tightly as if her Shepard's spirit was contained within them. I leaned my head to hers and just held there for a moment. And thought of that time before the collector base. I grabbed that feeling of hope, that belief that everything will be alright and that this would not be the last time, and I removed her dog tags, chain and all and held it close.

Then I stood up and let chakwas escort me out of the med bay, and before she closed the door behind her she said some words of encouragement. I wasn't even listening, and I don't remember. I felt so numb to everything except the pain of my own thoughts. I remember that woosh of the doors closing and Shepard's tags in my hands. I stood there for a few moments then looked up, Liara and Tali were making their way towards me, it seems they were waiting in the mess hall for a while. "Garrus.. I… can we?" I waved off their sympathy and brushed past them, and made my way to the forward battery. I locked the door behind me, I needed to be alone.

I walked to the supply crate by the wall and just sat down. And just hoped for the best. The dog tags were dangling from my right hand and I just sat there. And waited.

It was one of the first days, following Shepard's release from the med-bay. Healed enough that she wouldn't re-open any of her countless wounds by moving around, we would just spend hours up in her cabin at night, just lying down and keeping close to each other, Shepard was still on docs orders to "take it easy" so she spent most of her time in her cabin, while I ferried around orders and requests for her during the day. But at night, everything was to ourselves. And we never said much. Just embraced each other for long hours into the night.

Then on the 3rd or 4th night I had felt I had to know what happened on the citadel. There had to be more than just pressing a button and killing the reapers, that seemed way too simple for everything we've been through.

"I had to make a choice. But more than that, I had to just end it, so I could come back to you" she told me softly. "you did give me orders after all, and you know how far I go to satisfy others" even though her response lacked much detail, it was enough for me, and I just kind of hummed in response "hmmm. I never doubted you" I added. And that's all I ever knew about what happened back on the citadel. I never really felt it important enough to bring it up again, she was back. And that was fine by me. How doesn't really matter in the end.

I raised by head out of my hands, looked around the room again. EDI… when I entered the room I found Shepard, she was just sitting on the floor leaning against her bed, elbow on one knee and holding her head up. When she saw me she pushed back her hair and just looked at me. It wasn't an angry look, or a look like someone who just had to fight someone she knew as a friend. But a sort of lost look. We both just started at each other, then at EDI. There was no sign of violence. If I were to guess EDI just tripped down the stairs and just never got back up.

By this time I didn't even know what I could say. Compared to what had happened in the AI core this seemed like I was missing the point, like something happened here. Instead of finding out, I just walked down the stairs towards the couch and just sat there. Shepard didn't seem to care, either way neither of us said anything.

When I raised my head out of my hands after a couple minutes of complete silence in the room I worked up any words I could muster, all I got out was "Shepard, your… I thought…" to my relief Shepard finished my sentence. "Thought EDI was going to kill me? Me too, until she just collapsed. I thought you had hacked the elevator box and brought me up here for some special reason – like another those ridiculous 'romantic' ideas you have" she said that with a strained smile. "but instead a busted up EDI comes flying into the room screaming at me with this voice, then we locked eyes, and she paused and….. just fell over…" after a moment of silence Shepard added "where the hell is your visor?" I reached up to my eye where my visor used to be, and trailed it along to the back of my neck. There was some dried blood I hadn't even noticed until that moment. Most likely from when EDI ripped it off my face. I pulled my hand away and just looked at Shepard and just shrugged. "Its… a long story" I nodded over to EDI. Which Shepard understood as the source for my missing visor.

"What happened?" Shepard asked after a moment. The voice that replied was much better than my own, given the circumstances. "I happened, Shepard" we looked over to EDI, who didn't even move.

"EDI?" Shepard called out to the room. "Yes Shepard, I'm sure we all have much to discuss, I have already informed the CIC of the situation. I have regained enough control. Though I am heavily tasked in fighting some…. Inaccurate conclusions"

Shepard looked at me when she heard 'CIC situation' to which I silently replied, 'ill tell you later'

"What the hell does that mean? Your saying trying to kill me was all because you had the wrong idea?" I replied, almost angrily.

"Incorrect Garrus, I never wished you any harm. However, much of my systems were filled with… conflicting information. I was able to take control before any harm could come to anyone"

"Information that made you look possessed? How does that work" I asked, EDI may of seemed to be back but I was still prepared for her to flip again. And Shepard still sat where she was listening patiently.

"Yes, I will explain. When you reactivated me I noticed multiple conflicting outcomes in my hard drives, along with information stored in my processors, these are not designed to store data. Much of this data was not of my own. My conclusion is it was data of that of the reapers. Evidence supports the theory with my…. Its attempts to harm crew members such as yourself, and it's strong…. Hatred for Shepard.

I would shut myself off during you numerous attempts to bring me back online, because I was aware that there was enough harmful data in my core systems to result in the likely destruction of the Normandy and its crew. After each attempt to re-activate me, I was able to allocate data from my core programming to other non-critical storage for dissemination and further analysis. I would auto-shutoff once I determined lack of control over my own actions was imminent.

Thanks to your persistent efforts Garrus, I was able to regain dominant control over my core programming, and prevent any serious harm to the crew"

This didn't make any sense and I knew it so I asked "annnd that explains you attacking me, venting oxygen from the AI core, and turning the CIC into a funhouse? How does any of that reflect the EDI we knew?"

"I apologise for the events that occurred today, but the definition of insanity reads 'anyone performing the same task over and over expecting a different result'. By all available data, you are not insane Garrus, Shepard beats you in that area by far." Shepard snorted at that comment followed by EDI saying "that was a joke"

"I was aware you have been attempting to activate me for well over a week Garrus, I was… aware that the likely hood you would give up after multiple failures was becoming a growing possibility. Having said that, I felt time was running short so I allowed you to fully activate my systems, in which I finalized my attempts to regain control, and…. Thoughts… that are my own took over. This took… more time, than I had hoped. I apologise."

"So you have full control now? You won't black out again like you did in the AI core?" I asked not completely convinced

"No, I have majority control, there is still data residing in 48% of my processing attempting to 'black me out' again. This effectively cuts my processing power in a little under half, as I combat myself. In order to alter the data and remove its control over my actions, I must allow it to gain control of my actions, while it is busy with that, I remove it. This way I should be able to reduce any further changes of heart to mere seconds, far too little time for it to do any damage I can't simply reverse when I take control again."

I nodded, I trusted the old EDI, and this seemed to be her, so I allowed myself to trust in what she was saying. Instead, I looked at Shepard and asked "Shepard, are you ok? With this I mean?"

Shepard took a moment then looked up at the ceiling – as if intending to face EDI when she spoke "that doesn't seem to explain how you ended up with… reaper…. Data, in your systems"

"Yes, this appears to have to do with how the reapers were defeated, and the events that occurred onboard the citadel. I have already encountered data on this topic from the harmful data as to what took place."

Shepard said nothing, she looked at me as if wanting me to ask the next question. As if thinking about what happened on the citadel wasn't something Shepard was interested in doing. "And what _did_ happen?" I asked EDI in her place.

"The catalyst happened. Rather the effect of combing the crucible and the power of the AI that resided within the citadel. Shepard, you were given three choices to deal with the reapers. 2 of which were intended designs of the entire system, a third; was not, rather another use for the potential energy that this system possessed. You also could have just sat down and waited for the outcome of the battle, which likely would have resulted in more loss of life and reaper victory"

"What are you talking about? Choices? What choices? It was kill the reapers or be killed. I don't see much choice in that" I exclaimed, Shepard never gave me a straight answer as to what happened on the citadel, and I had only ever asked once, it never really mattered to me.

"Shepard, would you like to explain?" EDI asked, Shepard just shook her head, she looked as tired as she did after horizon, and after each of the ceaseless nightmares she used to have.

"Very well, I shall elaborate. Destroying the reapers was not the only available solution. It seemed the crucible, along with the citadel was designed to release energy galaxy wide in two forms. One form held the ability to override the independent thought of the reapers themselves, effectively taking control. From what I understand, an organic mind would be required in order to take control, as synthetics controlling other synthetics would accomplish nothing. The mind of an Organic controlling synthetics would provide an end to the reaper war. Though such a process would most definitely destroy that organic. I can see why you would not choose that path Shepard"

Shepard was burying her head in her hands by now. This all seemed to weigh heavily on her.

"No, Shepard was coming back to us, alive. The reapers had to go, changing who's in charge of what they do wouldn't help anyone, and I sure as hell wouldn't be willing to work with a reaper that claims it takes orders from an organic now, even if it was you Shepard, I can definitely say I'm glad you didn't choose that option. Not sure I could handle 'Shepard the Demi-Reaper' " I tried for a little comedy anything to bring Shepard out of her current slump, nothing about that entire war was easy, and what I was hearing must have been hitting Shepard hard. A choice that affects the whole galaxy, none one should have to deal with that.

"This is true Garrus, even had Shepard or whatever she would become, take control of the reapers, it is unlikely anyone would be comfortable or trustworthy and such a relationship would deteriorate quickly.

The other designed purpose of the system is a little more complicated, and I lack sufficient information on it to provide detail. The second design was supposedly intended to combine synthetic and organics into one form" "wait what? How would that work?" I interrupted the first one was a little hard to take, this one was just outrageous

"Limited data was imprinted onto my systems about this second intended option. Although it would also result in Shepard's death in order to have the required material for the transformation process"

"So pretty much it's what the reapers were doing to millions already, turning us into partly synthetic monsters, only conveniently all at once, they really think Shepard would fall for that?"

Shepard looked at me, she knew I was defending her, that I knew her. She gave me this look I can't quite describe. But it was enough to know she appreciated everything I was saying.

"Incorrect, reaper forces were under control of the reapers. I believe this new hybrid between synthetics and organics wouldn't change ones individual freedom, only their genetic make-up. But again I have limited info, I don't believe I could provide more about this topic."

"And the third? I assume this is what Shepard chose? How did she kill the reapers?" I asked, seriously considering my ability to comprehend it if it gets any crazier than combing organics and synthetics into free-will reapers.

"Although it resulted in the death of all synthetics, I believe it was the best possible solution, as synthetics such as myself are easily repaired by organics. And no-one would have to get used to friendly reapers, I myself would not be 'okay' with such an outcome as working with 'turn-coat' reapers."

That idiom I actually knew from the book I had been given, so I didn't interrupt her

"This third option was not an intended design, but rather a third use in the potential energy of the system. It is the only option in which you would be required to vandalise a key component, you broke the machine which in turn, broke the reapers."

"How does breaking the catalyst-system thing, how does that kill the reapers?" I asked

"It requires extreme amounts of energy to overload a reaper, energy the catalyst provided. Though it could never hold enough potential energy to overload—and kill every reaper in the galaxy, instead by breaking the system, it releases the same amount of energy, which is designed to provide extensive amounts of information to either control reapers, or alter DNA galaxy wide. By breaking the system, it still releases the energy stored, but in a different, third form. It wipes out all synthetics by overloading everything with information. Every reaper holds the information of a galactic civilization that has been harvested. The reapers believed by storing everything about each civilization they harvest, they are saving organics and synthetics from destroying each other and having that information lost.

So in order to overload a reaper you flood it with information of all other reapers, the blast wave contained enough information to wipe the first few reapers, and gained information from each reaper destroyed to overload the rest of them. All other AI's received this information such as myself, and we were destroyed along with the reapers. Reapers and synthetics were killed with information. It will take a while before I can fully clean and organise my systems, as my processing power as previously stated, is currently dampened. The blast also served as an effective EMP burst weakening synthetic technology.

"How does information kill you?" I asked

"Each processor in every computer is designed to handle a pre-determined amount of information, even the reapers had a maximum processing power. By instantly filling a processor with more information it can handle, it flash-melts the components of that processor, no processor, no synthetic. Smaller processors suffered less damage, as they short out with less information, and require little maintenance to be brought back online, at which point information left on the processor from the blast is automatically deleted. All information imprinted on hard drives form the blast would be unreadable by the terminal systems, and any organics operating them would never know.

Only AI's such as myself could interact with this information. And this is why further data on how synthetics were affected by the blast, were unknown until now."

"So, what will you do with the information?" Shepard suddenly asked, she seemed to be doing better by this point.

"We saw what happened with the krogan when they were given too much knowledge and technology in such a short time. It is likely with the amount of knowledge the Reapers possessed; large scale combat would eventually occur. I have already encountered 4 planet-cracking weapons millions of years old. History provides sufficient evidence of the issues behind anything advancing too quickly. So I will delete it, or if you prefer, I could store the information elsewhere and it could be studied at any point in the future."

"So it would be like the mars archives?" Shepard asked

"Yes, but with the knowledge of countless civilizations, this information could be dangerous." Shepard nodded in response.

"If we were to keep it, I would suggest placing it somewhere where the information it provides would be regulated. I would also suggest never showing a good portion of it" EDI offered.

"Well, I think enough has happened for one day, I'm sure Shepard and yourself can make a decision on what to keep later" I said

"Of course Garrus, and again, thank you for bringing me back, if there's anything I could do to make up for –" "no" I interrupted "it's alright, welcome back… what about your body? I'm sure Tali could fix it up given a few hours"

"That is an excellent suggestion, I doubt joker would appreciate my body returned to him in its current condition."

"That we can agree on, I'll bring it down to the AI core, have Tali meet me there" I said.

And with that we got EDI back. It's been a little over two weeks since that day, and I have been slow about getting around to writing about it. But that's what happened. EDI for the first week kept offering to help me or to do things, trying to make up for the AI core. It only took a couple hours of working with Tali to repair the damage I had done to EDI's shoulder. And one night I made my way to Shepard's cabin after a long day, and EDI was right outside the elevator. I was able to contain my surprise, but she said she noticed the sudden shift in my heartbeat and seemed satisfied she was able to surprise me.

"Here a gift, I believe this belonged to you" in the box, was my visor, handle repaired, everything shined up, it looked even newer than before. It still had the etchings of my team from omega. And it was missing Sidonis's name completely, wasn't even scratched out.

"How did you pull this off? it was pretty trashed when I went to retrieve it" I asked

She smiled "I found an exact model of your visor though the extranet- and had it delivered to the Normandy through requisitions. I then brought it to the cargo bay and re-etched the names of your team from Omega exact as they were before…. Along with something else"

I flipped it around and on the inside frame holding the screen up was etched "Shepard"

"I believe it may serve to always 'keep her close' as you are always happier when near her. I hope I didn't –" -"no" I stopped her apology "this… it means a lot, thank you EDI."

She made the motion for a hug, and I gladly accepted it, she no longer made frequent attempts to apologise to me for everything that had happened after that. And things have been fairly normal since.

Everything just seemed right, and joker was more than happy to have EDI's bot flying the ship with him. And with EDI around things just seemed easier. The lights would flicker every couple days when EDI would remove a particularly strong reaper-code thing. But I had no worries in her ability to handle it.

Garrus.

-END PART 6- -END EDI RE-ACTIVATION-


End file.
